Re: TC & Lightning

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Harold Weiss" <hweiss-at-new.rr-dot-com> 

Hi Gary,

Those are neat results, but a bad idea, as lightning can strike up to 10
miles away from a storm.  While these "out of the blue" bolts are rare, they
can happen.

Recently we had a tornadic storm that was producing lightning that looked
similar to a high breakrate ARSG coil.  The cloud to cloud was nearly
continuous with some bolts lasting almost 5 seconds.  I have never seen
lightning like that before.  Lucky for me, the tornado came down behind me
on the highway I was driving on a few minutes before.

David E Weiss

 > Original poster: "Gary Weaver" <gary350-at-earthlink-dot-net>
 >
 >
 >
 > As we all know a tesla coil will light up a florescent light bulb from
 > several feet away.  My 4" coil will light up a light bulb from 15 ft away
 > and my 10" coil will light up a light bulb from 40 ft away.   More power
 > more distance.  If I move the light bulb close the the TC it glows all the
 > time.  If I get far away from the TC the light bulb flashes only when
there
 > is a discharge spark.   I was watching TV and I could see lighting static
 > on the picture.  I knew a storm was not to far away.   As it turned out
the
 > storm was about 40 miles away.  That gave me an idea.  I flew a kite on a
 > piece of #24 enamel coated copper wire about 150 ft of wire attached to
the
 > end of a florescent light bulb that was stuck in the ground.  The storm
was
 > about 10 miles away and every time there was lighting in the storm the
 > florescent light bulb would flash.  As the storm got closer and closer the
 > light bulb flashed brighter and brighter.  When the storm was about 3
miles
 > away the light bulb glowed all the time.  That is very interesting because
 > that is exactly what the Tesla Coil does.  The storm got closer, the wind
 > picked up, the kite crashed, it started to rain and I went in the house.
 >
 > Gary Weaver
 >
 >
 >